Mike Krzyzewski, affectionately dubbed Coach K, has issued strong words to the Boston Celtics‘ Jayson Tatum after the basketball star after he was spotted criticizing his coach after getting limited minutes in Team USA’s win over Serbia.
LeBron James and Kevin Durant were trusted by Steve Kerr to deliver the 110-84 victory over Nikola Jokic’s team at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France and this left Tatum annoyed as he watched from the sidelines.
As a result, he called out the Team USA boss on the sidelines which is a big no-no for Coach K, who won the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in men’s basketball along with Kobe Bryant and James.
“It’s a difficult assignment, and we usually ended up with a rotation of about nine players and three others would play limited minutes or not play at all,” Kryzewski said to media, drawing from his own experience. “And whatever happens for the team, you accept it because, again, you get back to that one question, did we win?
“Okay, this is the way we have to do it, as long as we win, I’m okay with everything. There are no individual accolades, it’s gotta be a collective effort.”
Coach K’s Redeem Team won the gold with a 118-107 victory over Spain to restore the reputation of the USA four years after they embarrassingly collected bronze in Greece with an 89-1 loss to Argentina in the semi-finals.
The tournament also saw defeats to minnows Puerto Rico (92-73) and Lithuania (94-90) in the group stages in a shocking event that saw the USA suffer three defeats. They had only lost twice in all Olympics basketball events prior.
Who do Team USA play next?
Coach K remained in charge of the team from 2008-2016 before the 77-year-old handed over the reigns to Gregg Popovich, who has since passed them on to Kerr after the one appearance at the 2020 ‘Games in Tokyo.
Kerr bids to continue Coach K’s reestablished success on Wednesday, July 31 against South Sudan at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium, with tip-off expected at 15:00 ET/12:00 PT.
The USA failed to impress against South Sudan in their warm-up games, with a slender one point winning margin that saw them lose two quarters
